#Bde Maka Ska

[junelalonde]

[oakand-photography]

Sunset over Bde Maka Ska, summertime

[chaddavisphotography]

Clouds break up following severe thunderstorms in Minneapolis on August 26, 2024.

[twincitiesseen]

Mystic.

[hclib]

The Changing Moods of Bde Maka Ska

The Changing Moods of Lake Calhoun I love thy waters edge at morn It is so cool, I feel reborn As draw I breaths deep, full, and free And baptize soul with thoughts of thee. At noon-tide, thou art shining fair The sunbeams caught in glistening lair I joy with thee and dance at will For thou art winsome, coy and still. Then fleecy clouds come into view And waft me on to visions new; But while I feast enchanted here There speeds an [illegible] cloudlet near. The wave beneath begin to frown More darkness gathers; then to crown The day's bewitching hour with glee The lake puts on a cap of majestry. The lightning's flash, the thunder's roar

The author of this poem from our Minneapolis and Hennepin County Vertical Subject Files is lost to time. The poem probably dates from the early 1900s, but it seems its author never finished it. If you would like to explore more of the many moods of Bde Maka Ska (Lake Calhoun at the time this poem was written) to find your own poetic inspiration, there are hundreds of photos of the lake in the Hennepin County Library Digital Collections.

[sohannabarberaesque]

And in essentially the same shade as Snagglepuss, Lyla, Betty Makaska even!

(N. B. That last one, Betty Makaska--essentially an original creation on my own end, a sometime secondary girlfriend of Snagglepuss; the name is a play on "Bde Maka Ska," the original Ojibwe name of Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, so restored in 2019.)

Pretty in pink🩷

[teenagefeeling]

my "moving to minneapolis" fantasy has never been stronger tbh

[trivialbob]

Today it's sunny and warm here. I got going early on a bike ride, to beat the oncoming hot weather. For this ride I used my single-speed Surly Cross Check. This bike is decked out as a commuter machine, with fenders, rear rack, pannier bag and a center kickstand. Sheila gave it to me for Christmas about ten years ago.

I love the simplicity of a single-speed, but as I get older I start to think about getting gears added. I'm really interested in trying an internally geared hub.

Above in the video is Minnehaha Falls, flowing stronger than usual. On my route map below, the falls are in the lower right corner, a little over halfway of this 18 mile loop. There's a seafood restaurant at the park there too. Sometimes Sheila and I stop there for a beer if we're having a lackadaisical ride.

The top length on the map is the Minneapolis Greenway, a bike trail running along a former railway trench through the city. I rode the Greenway from Bde Maka Ska (pronounced bu-DAY muh-KOSS-ka, the new name of the former Lake Calhoun) to the Mississippi River.

The right side is West River Road. The bottom length is Minnehaha Parkway. To the left are lakes. This route is entirely on paved bike paths, except for a little construction detour off the Greenway this month.

After the ride I got out my bike mechanic stand. I cleaned and lubricated the drivetrains of the Surly and my e-bike. If the weather cools off a little this evening I think I'll take Sulley over to Lake Harriet (where the red marker is on the map) so he can swim a little.

[centralkvetchmonolith]

OH OKAY DAMB OKAY even more reasons to call it Bde Maka Ska...may his name be blotted out

[cinemaocd]

This is the reason you know that confederate monuments were put up in the early 20th century after most veterans of the civil war were dead. There is no way they could have named a lake in Minneapolis after the architect of the Confederacy, John C. Calhoun in the state that brought you the First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry....

It’s become a commonly shared anecdote on the internet that Minnesota displays a captured Confederate battle flag belonging to Virginia in their state Capitol and periodically get to smugly deny Virginia’s request for it back. I think what’s less well know is the story of how they got it:

On July 2nd, 1863, on the battlefield in Gettysburg a gap opened up in the Union lines and 1,200 Confederate troops poured through. The only troops close enough to plug the gap were the 262 men of 1st Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. They charged into certain death and held the line until reinforcements arrived, at 6-1 odds, suffering the highest casualty rate of any regiment in any battle in US history, before or since. Only 47 men survived without injuries, most of them would die the next day repelling Picket’s Charge and capturing Virginia’s Battle Flag. To quote a battlefield historian, “The First Minnesota rushed through the storm of bullets coming from the direct fire of two brigades, into the midst and centre of this overwhelming force, with nothing but death to look for, and no hope or chance; for any other success than to gain the brief time needed to save that battlefield. And not a man wavered.”

And to quote the Great Souled Man, and to acknowledge that the best things that could be said about the 1st Minnesota have already been said and that this war is not over, “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

[oakand-photography]

Bde Maka Ska at sunset, stark lines on the ice and in the sky

[chaddavisphotography]

Above part of the 51 mile Grand Rounds Scenic Byway in Minneapolis.

[twincitiesseen]

Bde Maka Ska on a fall afternoon.

[sohannabarberaesque]

So much for Snagglepuss and Lyla:

I myself have imagined Snag going for another girlfriend of sorts in the leonine arena who pretty much accepts as a given the fact of his being epicene: Videlicet, Betty Makaska, who could be said to be more "cool" looking than Lyla was.

(The name, know, being inspired by Bde Maka Ska, the former Ojibwe name for Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis, so reinstated in 2019. The name translates as "water surrounded by white hills.")

[sohannabarberaesque]

BETTY MAKASKA, a somewhat close friend of Snagglepuss (and original character of mine in a Hanna-Barberian vein, know), following some relaxation in a hot spring pool: I wonder why coffee tastes so good when you're out naked in a hot spring pool such as this ...

[narcsmelly]

not to be pedantic but that's not the mississippi, thats bde maka ska